ADDRESS TO THE LABOR PARTY CAUCUS

 

OPPOSITION PARTY ROOM, PARLIAMENT HOUSE

 

TUESDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2015

 

 

*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***

 

 

 

One down, one to go.

 

They say that 24 hours is a long time in politics. It certainly is.

 

Never before in Australian history have we seen a political party lose a by-election before it's even been held.

 

So we've got a new leader today, a new leader of the Liberal Party but there's no new direction.

 

It may not be the same leader but it is in fact the same message from the Liberal Party.

 

This country has been going nowhere for the last two years.

 

You know the story, we see it every day in the suburbs and the streets.

 

Unemployment has gone up, debt and deficit has gone up. Even the NBN's doubled in cost since before the last election.

 

We've seen growth down, real wage income growth down, we've seen confidence down.

 

And yet Malcolm Turnbull has said that the problem is only in the style, not the substance.

 

This country needs no more showmen, it actually just needs substance.

 

But in order to gain the Liberal Party leadership and the Prime Ministership, Malcolm Turnbull has sold out all of the things which he always said were very important to him.

 

Whatever happened to climate change, Malcolm? Instead he wants to pay big polluters to pollute.

 

And you have a look at marriage equality? Now all of a sudden he wants a taxpayer-funded opinion poll to delay marriage equality for all Australians.

 

So his conclusion, after two years of an out-of-touch, arrogant Liberal Government, is just to change the salesman.

 

But Australians deserve better.

 

Australians understand that the thing about Malcolm is it's always about Malcolm.

 

What we need in this country is a new direction not just a new salesman.

 

But I have to say that the changes that have happened in the last 24 hours had their genesis, had their birth in the actions of 25 Labor Senators and 55 Labor members of the House of Representatives.

 

It was said when Mr Abbott and his Liberals came in, in 2013 that this was going to be a government of adults. Really?

 

And now what's happened, though, is it was this group here who said no to the broken promises and to the cuts.

 

It was the people here with that dreadful 2014 Budget, when other people were extolling the virtues of it, it was the people in this room who stood up for the millions of Australians who depend upon us.

 

Except for the people in this room there would be a GP tax.

 

Except for the people in this room there would be $100,000 degrees.

 

Except for the people in this room, the submarine contracts would have been let and the jobs would have gone offshore.

 

Except for the people in this room, there wouldn't be people standing up against the cuts to hospitals and schools.

 

You can all hold your heads up very proud today because there was one reason why the Liberal Party went to Malcolm Turnbull.

 

Not because they've worked out they're out of touch, it's because they’re panicked.

 

They’re panicked because they know that their sterile philosophy of dividing the community has gone down very poorly.

 

Their leave-it-to-the-market and not-worry-about-any-individual, not worry about people, leave them behind, that philosophy, that sterile view of the world is what has cost them support and the goodwill of the Australian people.

 

It is not a case of changing the salesman.

 

When I listen to the debate in the last 24 hours as I've watched the Liberal Party pull itself to bits, what amazes me about the Government is they still don't get what is wrong with the Government.

 

But how can they?

 

How can they say that they're new, that there's something different when the new Prime Minister, and the old deputy, when they sat in the Cabinet room and voted for the economic approach of Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott?

 

It's a very interesting question.

 

How often in the Cabinet did Mr Turnbull and the loyal deputy, Julie Bishop, speak up and say, this is wrong?

 

They voted for all the same cuts. They have voted for all the same cuts.

 

The real issue, the real issue for Australians today as they wake up with the Liberal Party having chosen a new Prime Minister, is that the problem is it's the same old stuff rebadged as new.

 

Now we, we have seen off one bad Liberal Prime Minister and we will do this again because what matters in this country isn't the personality, in terms of Mr Turnbull or Mr Abbott or Mr Morrison or the rest of that gang -

 

What matters is the ideas for the future.

 

You've been part, this year, of unfolding a range of policies about the future, about 2030.

 

You know some of the measures that we've been backing in.

 

50 per cent renewable energy.

 

Chasing down multinationals to pay their fair share of taxation in this country.

 

Dealing with ridiculously excessive taxation concessions to multimillionaires in superannuation.

 

We are committed to getting this nation on track.

 

The real lesson out of last night is this:

 

If you want a new direction in this country you've got to vote for a new government, a Shorten Labor Government.

 

Thank you very much.


ENDS

 

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